Fighting Steel Project (FSP)
Version 4.0 Review
By: BrettDez
Fighting Steel, a game that already has won
the hearts of many many battleship enthusiasts, has become even better with
Fighting Steel Project (FSP) by Naval Warships Simulations.
The game's performance has been dramatically improved with the addition of
the use of DirectX 8, which I don't know how we could have done without. The
only drawback of this game speed enhancement, is the fact that it causes the
game to be a lot less Alt+Tab stable. This can cause some irritation while
attempting to get together a multiplayer. But it is hardly a big problem,
simply get everything set up and make sure everyone is ready before you go
off to host or join a game.
Realism
This unofficial patch (aka: Mod) at v4.0 has so much added realism and
accuracy to historical facts, be careful, you may just get your feet wet!
They've added torpedo defense values so ship's that were built to withstand
torpedo strikes do get less damage when taking a hit. The ballistics
calculations have been greatly improved. Armor penetration is modeled
accurately from what this reviewer can see and the amount of armor a shell
impacts is randomized. Say you fire a 15" shell at an Iowa-Class Battleship
and it hits around the area of the main armor belt, now this randomizes the
thickness of the armor to give the random "where'd it hit?" effect. Not
every single shell nailed the armor belt directly, so we shouldn't expect a
game to simulate that. Thanks, FSP! I was dramatically impressed with the
quantity of changes to make this more accurate in realism in this review
alone. Go to their website for FSP and check out their updates section to
see the many many many changes done.
Probably
the greatest addition to this game through FSP v4.0 has to be the addition
of two new classes of ships. The monstrous US Navy Iowa-Class Battleship and
the USN Wichita-Class Cruiser have been added to the game. Finally we can
have the deadly rivalry between the Yamato and the Iowa come to life on your
computer screen. The Wichita's fast shell loading equipment is modeled to
put a deadly advantage in this cruiser, so look out anyone who plans on
going against that ship. It felt really good while I stood on the bridge of
the USS New Jersey (Iowa-Class BB) and tossed some shells at the
Yamato-Class 16,000 feet off to my starboard side.
With the
addition of these 2 new classes, our expectations are naturally raised for
these guys (sorry guys, keep up the good work though!), new ships being
added that were originally excluded are always a possibility. Maybe even
entirely new countries. It’d be great to have the Italian and French navies
getting underway with the rest. We’ll just have to wait and see.
New
options
Can't bother with long into scenes? Well FSP v4.0 has a command in their .ini
file that will turn off those pesky movies. But even better....torpedo
wakes!! Yep! Finally it's not just "Ship is evading torpedoes", try your own
hand at evading torpedoes! You better spot them first. Spouts of water will
shoot out of the water in streams behind the torpedoes signaling the
approach of a torpedo. But they are still small and may go unnoticed in the
heat of battle till it is too late. So eat some carrots and sharpen your
eyes for that.
Torpedo wake spotted
sir! HARD TO STARBOARD!
Campaign
mode has been taken down a bit. The Fatigue rating of a ship's crew has been
removed for the reasons that a high quality crew can negate the effects of
fatigue during battle usually. The overall effectiveness of the ship is
really debatable depending on the crew and ranges far too much and is far
too random to really model how it would effect the ship accurately. But this
causes ships to be allowed to stay out for the entire course of a campaign
without the need of sending them to port. This is a downside, but what is
the campaign? Nothing but random scenarios generated based on what ships you
have available. So it is once again, not much of a downside. I have received
word that they will be working on adding an option of having crew fatigue on
or off, so you can decide.
New
Sound Effects
If you thought the old sound effects were good, wait till you hear these
new ones. The most spine tingling has to be the new “incoming projectile
whistle” and the “impact on water.” I myself am still exploring these
sounds. This is a BIG plus!
